The shortlist is now out for the WCBC 2019 Sports Awards, which will be held in a ceremony at Brymbo Sports and Social Club on Friday, February 15.
The categories are varied and the nominees come from a whole range of backgrounds – with sports as diverse as football, fencing, martial arts, swimming and bowls represented in the line-up.
Categories cover every level of community sport – and there’s even a few athletes who have competed on the global stage in the mix.
Cllr Andrew Atkinson, Lead Member for Youth Services and Anti-Poverty, with responsibility for Leisure, said: “All of those on the shortlist have excelled in their fields, and their nominations are all thoroughly deserved.
“Each and every one of them deserves recognition for their efforts – be that through their hard work as a coach or trainer, or the effort they’ve put in to physical recovery after a physical ailment.
“I congratulate all those who’ve made it this far, and look forward to seeing who wins on the night.”
The nominations for this year’s awards are outlined below – take a look! You might know some of the sporting stars who are up for an award this year.
Volunteer of the Year – Sponsored by AVOW
Delwyn Derrick – Bellevue FC
Sarah Warburton – Cefn Mawr Rangers FC
Clywedog Gold and Silver Young Ambassadors – Ysgol Clywedog
Stephen Wilk – Chirk Dragons Swimming Club
Coach of the Year – Sponsored by Charisma Trophies
Ady Jones – Ady Jones Taekwondo
Kieran Howard – Brymbo Lodge Youth FC
Victoria Furlong Hart – Wrexham Golf Club
The National Exercise Referral Scheme (NERS) Achievement in Health Award – Sponsored by NERS
Enis Stevens
Mike Bishop
Nicola Tooke
Peter Francis
Organisation of the Year – Sponsored by Wrexham Tennis Centre
Bradley Park Bowling Club
Brickfield Rangers Football Club
Brymbo Lodge Youth Football Club
The Splash Community Trust
Wrexham Inclusion Football Club –
St Christophers School
Disability Sports Personality of the Year – Sponsored by Get Out, Get Active and Disability Sport Wales
Megan Weetman – Special Olympics Wrexham Athletic Club
Sabrina Fortune – Special Olympics Wrexham Athletic Club
Shaun Stocker – Blind Veterans Para Powerlifting
Junior Sports Personality of the Year – Sponsored by Cllr I David Bithell MBE
Cory Jones – Maelor Boxing Club/Ysgol y Grango
Daniel Thompson – Archery GB
Ellie Jones – One Planet Adventure Race Team
Joe Howell – Llay Cricket Club/Ysgol y Grango
Josie Williams – Rhosnesni Netball Club
Sports Personality – Sponsored by Freedom Leisure
Sabrina Fortune – Special Olympics Wrexham Athletic Club
Year on year, the Mayor of Wrexham opens the doors of the Parlour to many guests.
From local school councils to community groups and charities, the Mayor welcomes one and all and takes immense delight in giving visitors to the Guildhall a little insight into the history of Wrexham.
However, this isn’t just any history lesson. The Mayor has a few special items to bring the county borough’s history…and the world’s history…to life.
Here’s the top five…
5. Piece of the Berlin Wall
Following the aftermath of World War Two, Germany was divided from 1961 to 1989 by a concrete wall which separated West Berlin from East Germany and East Berlin.
It was constructed by East Germany starting in August 1961. It tragically separated friends and families for years until government officials reopened the wall in November 1989 – paving the way for German reunification.
June 13, 1990 saw the official demolition take place with many people collecting pieces of the wall to keep as a reminder that such events should never happen again.
We’re fortunate to have a very rare piece of the wall. It includes the remains of a painting which would have emblazoned the structure in an attempt to brighten the oppressive sight.
Remembering how thick the wall would have been and how many chunks would have been taken, to have a piece with surviving artwork is amazing.
The brick and tile-making business was a major industry across North East Wales during the Victorian and Edwardian periods.
One of the leading giants in this field was Henry Dennis, and his renowned Dennis Ruabon Tile Factory was based in the area and spanned an incredible 130-year manufacturing legacy.
Notably famous for their distinctive red colouring – which led to the affectionate nickname ‘Ruabon Red Brick’ – these bricks and tiles helped shape buildings in and around Wrexham.
It didn’t stop there however. They helped build law courts, pubs, schools, universities and hospitals all over the UK.
Most notably of all, they helped build the Pier Head in Cardiff and Liverpool University Victoria Building.
The Pier Head in Cardiff features terracotta murals made in Ruabon.
The discovery of high quality Etruria Marl clay in the area during the 19th Century made the production of tile and terracotta on a large scale flourish, and this mass production earned Ruabon the nickname ‘Terracottapolis’!
The clay was popular because it didn’t shrink when fired which made it ideal for the decorative brickwork that 19th century and early 20th century architects so favoured.
In the case of the Ruabon Red Brick that sits pride of place in the Mayor’s Parlour, you have to think: “If only walls could talk!”
3. The last billet of steel rolled at Brymbo Steelworks
Wrexham has a rich and proud industrial history – one that has put the town on the map.
One of the most famous pioneer industrialists, John ‘Iron Mad’ Wilkinson, owned Bersham Ironworks.
In 1792, Wilkinson purchased Brymbo Hall with its 500 acre land for £14,000 from the Assheton-Smith family.
The land on which the estate lay was rich in coal and ironstone deposits and had small coal pits from a time before Wilkinson purchased the land. The first blast furnace was operational in 1796 – the first structure of many which spread across the hillside to become Brymbo Steelworks.
A second furnace followed in 1805. After initially operating as an ironwork site and following the death of Wilkinson, the land became stagnant for many years with attempts to revitalise the use of the facility.
In the 1840s, the near derelict work was revived by a group of Scottish entrepreneurs led by Henry Robertson. By the 1880s, the works had started producing steel.
In 1967, Brymbo was nationalised with the rest of the steel industry and high quality steel production began.
Brymbo produced specialist steels during the First and Second World War and the experience gained during these two conflicts allowed the workforce to build a reputation for high quality steel.
Brymbo’s reputation was in making steel alloys using minerals such as nickel, manganese, aluminium and chromium, whether for use in car parts or space craft.
Production continued until 1990 when Brymbo’s then owners closed the site.
The last billet of steel was rolled on October 12, 1990 and segmented to give as a souvenir.
One section can be seen in the Parlour today, keeping the memory alive.
The remains of the Brymbo steelworks sit quietly watching over the surrounding area – a triumphant snapshot in time.
2. Miner’s Lamp
Another chapter in Wrexham’s past is our coal mining community.
By the 19th century, Wrexham was highly industrialised with 38 different collieries operating at the peak of this period throughout a string of villages stretching from Brymbo and Llay in the north to Cefn Mawr and Chirk in the South. These villages had grown up around the many coal mines of the Denbighshire coalfield.
These collieries produced 2.5 millions tonnes of coal annually. This coal helped to serve our local brickworks and steelworks. It also served nearby Shotton Steel that was a major customer in the 20th Century.
One of our collieries was the Bersham Colliery.
Operational from 1868 to 1986, the colliery provided employment for hundreds of local men. It was a trade where sons followed in their father’s footsteps.
The work was very gruelling and didn’t come without its tragedies. In 1880, a major underground explosion claimed the lives of nine men including the colliery manager, William Patterson.
The final major incident occurred in 1909 with another explosion which took many more lives.
We never forget the work and loss that has taken place over the years and these hard efforts are always celebrated.
On its closure in March 1987, Bersham was the last operational colliery in the area. To mark the occasion, the NUM Bersham Colliery lodge secretary, Raymond Ellis, presented Wrexham Council with a miner’s lamp from the site.
It’s still here today, shining a light into the past for all to see.
1. Wrexham Lager bottles
In 1881, German immigrants Ivan Levinstein and Otto Isler were yearning to taste the refreshing foam of their local lager.
In a bid to try their hand at replicating that recipe, they accidentally founded Wrexham Lager!
Wrexham’s reputation for decent beer must have been widely known as most investors appear to have been living around Manchester. This must have played a part in them choosing this town to open Britain’s first lager brewery.
They picked a site for the brewing, and tapped the water underground with wells on the land off Maesgwyn Road.
This was the secret to the great taste. Wrexham had exceptionally good quality water and it served 19 breweries at the time.
Though the brewery saw a few rebuilds over the years, the original and listed brewery building still remains behind the Glyndŵr University art building.
The greatest legacy of Wrexham Lager however is a seafaring tale. Once upon a time, the White Star Line company ruled the seas with passenger ships.
A gentleman boarded a journey and caused quite a stir…
Early alcoholic drinks didn’t travel well across sea journeys. But Robert Graesser, managing director of the Wrexham Lager Beer Co. brought some bottles of Wrexham Lager with him, and miraculously they survived the journey as fresh as the day they were bottled!
This caught the attention of the White Star Line owner who wanted to cash in on this and secured a deal with Wrexham Lager to serve their beverage on the new, revolutionary, first of its kind ship – the unsinkable RMS Titanic!
Bottles such as the ones on display in the Mayor’s Parlour are reported to have been found on the wreckage of the ill-fated Titanic.
Rumour also has it that some of the tiles that adorned the ship were made in Gwersyllt! Now that’s a mighty claim to fame!
Brewing of Wrexham Lager ceased in 2000 much to the disappointment of local people. Fortunately in 2011, the Roberts family revived the brand and built a new brewery in the town centre to brew Wrexham Lager to the original recipe established by Levinstein and Isler.
Are you a group or organisation that provides play opportunities for children in Wrexham?
If so, you could be eligible for a grant of up to £1000!
The grants are being offered to groups and organisations in Wrexham thanks to funding from the Welsh Government. The aim is to improve children’s (including teenagers) opportunities for play, as well as helping to secure sufficient opportunities for play across Wrexham.
Priority for the funding will be given to projects that show innovative approaches to improving play, particularly those which develop ways to encourage and create opportunities for outdoor play, this could include:
Playful experiments
Simple landscaping
Improvements to signage
Traffic calming
Community events or training
If you are unsure what to apply for please contact a member of the Play Development Team to discuss potential ideas.
This short term grants programme has been set up in response to the Welsh Government recently making funding available to support children’s play and specifically the Welsh Play Sufficiency Duty.
The grants programme is open to any organisation or group working with or in support of children and their play in Wrexham. Applications can be made for up to £1,000, however, depending on the demand for funding and the suitability of applications received, the WCBC Play Development Team may decide to award projects less or more than initially requested, where appropriate.
Cllr Andrew Atkinson, Lead Member for Youth Services and Anti-Poverty, said: “This is an excellent opportunity for groups and organisations in Wrexham to apply for funding to support children and their play. Playing makes a significant contribution to the fitness and well-being of children so this is an excellent opportunity for groups in Wrexham.”
Due to the short time-scales and pressures to get this funding spent, the final deadline for applications will be Friday 22nd February 2019. Please read the grant guidelines before applying.
FOCUS Wales has announced another exciting partnership for 2019 with BreakOut West.
In 2018, this partnership saw an exchange programme that brought Western Canadian artists to showcase during FOCUS Wales, and in exchange saw Welsh artists embark on the trip across the Atlantic to showcase at BreakOut West. We are excited that this exchange will take place again in 2019.
BreakOut West will be showcasing 7 of the most exciting new acts coming out of western Canada during FOCUS Wales. The acts are:
Bad Animal – Alberta FRANKIIE – British Columbia Yes We Mystic – Manitoba Gunner & Smith – Saskatchewan Miesha & The Spanks – Alberta Trash Hawks – Saskatchewan Malcolm-Jay – Manitoba
FOCUS Wales co-founder and music booker Andy Jones comments: ‘We’re very pleased to be renewing this partnership in 2019. BreakOut West offers a fantastic opportunity for artists from Wales to make their first important strides into the North American music market, and, equally, the partnerships are going to provide a gateway for the very best emerging Canadian artists to access the UK music industry through Wales.’
In addition to this partnership, FOCUS Wales is welcoming many Canadian music professionals to Wales, and are keen to welcome more. Delegate Priority Pass tickets are available now via www.focuswales.com Delegate Priority Tickets include access to all FOCUS Wales live shows, conference events, mixer events, private parties, as well as a dedicated page on the FOCUS Wales website and mobile app, access to the online delegate site, and consideration for panel talks and one-to-one meetings.
Additionally, FOCUS Wales has recently announced over 100 acts who are set to play the festival in Wrexham this May, including: Boy Azooga, Neck Deep, The Lovely Eggs, Skindred, and BC Camplight. To see the full list of artists announced so far, and to purchase a 3 day festival wristband, visit www.focuswales.com
FOCUS Wales 2019 takes places 16th, 17th, 18th May across various venues in Wrexham, North Wales. Full 3 day wristbands for admission to all FOCUS Wales events are available now at www.focuswales.com/tickets Tickets start at an early bird price of £35 each.
FOCUS Wales is supported by Arts Council of Wales and Welsh Government and ourselves, Wrexham Council.
We’ve been very lucky so far this winter – apart from a few cold snaps, December and January have been quite mild.
But is there any bad weather on the horizon?
According to the Met Office, cold weather is predicted, with the possibility of ice and wintry showers. We’ve already had weather warnings for ice and snow in Wales.
But as it stands, it doesn’t look as though it’ll be especially disruptive – it’ll just be what we would normally expect for this time of year.
So it doesn’t look as though we’re due for another Beast from the East.
But we can only make predictions so far – and the Met Office doesn’t really know how things might change later on in February.
If conditions do get worse, what would we do?
What about gritting?
We have a fleet of gritters and hardworking volunteers from our Streetscene team who step in to drive them – they worked around the clock last year to keep roads open and safe. You can take a look at our agreed gritting routes here.
We’ve got a capacity of 8,000 tonnes of grit for spreading, which we’ve recently topped back up with 500 tonnes.
The decision on whether or not we send our gritters out can be looked at several times a day – if we go out too soon, the grit could be washed away by rain. But if we go out too late, it might not be as effective.
If you want to know if the gritters are going out you can keep an eye on our Twitter account – or watch out for #wxmgrit.
We also send out reminders via the MyUpdates system which emails updates directly to subscribers – you can subscribe to them here.
When very poor weather is expected or we are experiencing a particularly long bout of cold, freezing weather, we’ll keep you updated about where to find information on things such bin collections and school closures on this blog, our website, and our social media accounts – so please keep an eye on them.
Cllr David A Bithell, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “As of right now the weather is not expected to be disruptive, but obviously we’ll keep the public up to date, and advise everyone to keep an eye on our social media accounts and the local press.
“Last year’s level of snow was exceptional, so we want to ensure that we keep everybody moving during adverse weather – which is essential to the local economy.”
Work will begin on Monday, January 28 to improve the flower trough area of the Walled Garden at the Pentrebychan Crematorium, during which time this area will not be accessible to visitors.
The troughs are in a poor state of repair, and the area is being upgraded to provide a better facility for visitors to the Crematorium.
As all flowers and memorial items will need to be removed from the trough area within the Walled Garden to allow the work to be undertaken, we would be grateful if any personal items placed there could be collected by Friday, January 25 at the latest.
Memorial items not collected by this date will be placed in the Walled Garden entrance area for collection.
Once the improvements works have been completed – around March 2019 – the area will once again be opened to the public.
To contact the Crematorium, please ring 01978 840068.
The Older People’s Commissioner for Wales wants Wales to be the best place in the world to grow older and is currently determining the work she will undertake over the next three years to improve the lives of older people.
Since she took up post, the Commissioner has travelled the length and breadth of Wales, meeting and speaking with older people and organisations to hear about what would make Wales the best place in the world to grow older.
This has helped the Commissioner to identify three key long-term priorities for Wales, against which she will deliver a wide range of work over the next three years:
·Ensuring everyone can age well ·Ending ageism and discrimination ·Stopping abuse of older people
The Commissioner wants the voices and experiences of as many older people and stakeholders as possible and would welcome your views on what she should focus on under these priority areas, particularly the changes you want to see and your ideas about how to make these changes happen.
Get ready to share the magic! Harry Potter Book Night, the most magical night of the year, returns on Thursday, February 7.
An evening to celebrate everyone’s favourite wizard, Harry Potter, will be held at Wrexham Library from 3pm to 6pm! Come along and visit Harry’s bedroom under the stairs, play snitch pong and you can even win your own magic wand and take part in Harry Potter activities and quizzes!
Waterstones will be at the library selling Harry Potter goodies, and there will be readings from the series throughout the afternoon. You can also meet the sorting hat; find out your wizarding name and which Hogwarts house you belong in.
And if that isn’t enough, you can go on a journey to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, take part in a fancy dress competition and taste the delights of a Harry Potter themed cake stall!
Cllr Hugh Jones, Lead Member for Communities, Partnerships, Public Protection and Community Safety, said, “Wrexham Library’s fourth Harry Potter book night is set to be the best yet! Come along and celebrate the fantastic world of Harry Potter. Last year over 300 people attended, you really don’t want to miss it.”
This is a free event, all are welcome and under 8s must be accompanied by an adult. Dressing up is not essential but encouraged.
For more information please contact Wrexham Library.
Drawing on a discussion thread from the Wrexham Town Matters facebook page, this event will provide an opportunity to continue the debate and share ideas in person.
Wrexham Council Chief Executive Ian Bancroft will be in attendance and will open the discussion.
This event forms part of the public programme for the current exhibition at Tŷ Pawb ‘We Can only See Today’, which looks at the history of Wrexham as a market town and embrace the building’s place in its market heritage as a stepping stone to the future.
Local artist Don Braisby will record the meeting in words and pictures, to create a visual representation of our community’s hopes and ideas for Wrexham as a modern market town. Following the event, Don’s documentation will be displayed in Tŷ Pawb to encourage further discussion.
Join us in Tŷ Pawb’s Gallery Two on Monday 28th January at 6pm. Everyone is welcome.
